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Dating with Disabilities Made Easier

If Valentine’s Day week finds you online looking for love, you’ll have plenty of company. According to Time magazine, dating sites such as JDate, Christian Mingle, Match, Coffee Meets Bagel and others confirm that generally speaking “Valentine’s Day sees a spike in user activity.”

But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to find your soulmate online. In fact, online dating is not for the faint of heart and for singles with disabilities, it can be especially complicated. For one thing, there’s the perennial question: Should you reveal your disability in your profile and pictures?

The folks at Easter Seals recommend disclosing your disability up front “especially if it greatly impacts your life. It weeds out close-minded people from the start so you don’t waste your time, and it can be a way to spark conversation and connection,” says Easter Seals.

What if you’d rather avoid the whole disclosure question? Many singles with disabilities choose to forego generic dating sites in favor of the growing number of sites specifically for people with disabilities. Here, we list and explain how some of most popular sites and apps work.

My Special Match
Created by a mom and dad of a daughter with disabilities, My Special Match.com is a place where singles with disabilities can find friends and potential mates in a safe and accepting virtual environment.

Special Bridge
Special Bridge isn’t only a dating site, it’s an online social community for people with disabilities. Whether you’re seeking a romantic partner or strictly online relationships, the site offers dating and safety tips, an active blogsite with articles on relevant topics such as dating with Asperger’s syndrome and dating with Down syndrome. The site is only accessible to community members with disabilities and its developers are vigilant about making sure that scammers can’t become members.

Meet Disabled Singles Club
When you join this dating site, your profile will also be seen by users of many other websites geared toward singles with disabilities. Note: if you don’t want that, you can opt out and just focus on the site you join. You can send flirts and private messages, participate in video chats and see who’s liked and favorited you. Get started for free.

Glimmer
This dating app which launched in 2017, was founded by Geoffrey Anderson, the brother of a man with cognitive disabilities. After seeing his brother struggle to meet people on mainstream websites and dating apps, Anderson was inspired to develop an app that would make it easier for users to disclose their disabilities without fear of being rejected because of them. Think of Glimmer as a more inclusive, disability-friendly kind of Tinder.

Disabled Dating SinglesAccording to Best Dating Sites.com, this site is “easy to navigate, has an active dating community and is loaded with all the communication and search features that you look for in a good dating site.” Sign up for free and you can begin searching for compatible singles immediately.